ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) Sets New 12-Month Low – Should You Sell?

ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (NYSE:ARR)’s stock price reached a new 52-week low during trading on Tuesday. The company traded as low as $12.13 and last traded at $12.2340, with a volume of 412,849 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $12.41.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ARR. Weiss Ratings cut ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Zacks Research upgraded ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. JonesTrading lowered their target price on ARMOUR Residential REIT from $19.00 to $15.25 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. B. Riley Financial dropped their target price on ARMOUR Residential REIT from $18.00 to $14.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.56.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $1.86 billion, a PE ratio of -414.83 and a beta of 1.47. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $14.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $16.42.

ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.71. ARMOUR Residential REIT had a positive return on equity of 15.90% and a negative net margin of 5.09%. The company had revenue of $121.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $119.84 million. On average, research analysts expect that ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. will post 2.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 16th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 16th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 23.0%. ARMOUR Residential REIT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -9,600.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ARMOUR Residential REIT news, Chairman Daniel Staton sold 35,583 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.86, for a total transaction of $564,346.38. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ARMOUR Residential REIT

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT by 15.0% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,745,078 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $82,802,000 after purchasing an additional 619,020 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in ARMOUR Residential REIT during the second quarter valued at $13,757,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT by 234.6% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 664,247 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $11,080,000 after purchasing an additional 465,733 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT by 2.0% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 543,935 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,073,000 after buying an additional 10,592 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ascentis Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT by 11.3% during the second quarter. Ascentis Wealth Management LLC now owns 395,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,892,750 after purchasing an additional 40,000 shares in the last quarter. 54.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About ARMOUR Residential REIT

ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc is a real estate investment trust that invests primarily in residential mortgage-backed securities. Its portfolio generally consists of securities issued or guaranteed by U.S. government-sponsored enterprises, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or by U.S. government agencies such as Ginnie Mae.

The company invests in a range of agency mortgage securities, including fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgage pass-through securities, collateralized mortgage obligations, specified pools and to-be-announced securities.